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Chocolate
Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup golden crisco (or unsalted butter)
1-1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 eggs
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1-1/4 chopped pecans
TIP: If desired, omit pecans and use an additional
1 cup of chocolate chips.
Preparation:
- Cream crisco, brown sugar and
vanilla in large bowl at medium speed of
mixer for 2 min. or until well blended.
- Add eggs, beating 1 minute, or
until thoroughly blended.
- Combine flour, salt and baking
soda. Add to mixture gradually, beating
on low speed for 1 min. (until blended)
- Preheat oven to 190 C (375 F).
- Add chocolate chips and pecans
to creamed mixture.
- Drop dough by heaping spoonfuls
on ungreased baking sheet leaving about
7 cm between cookies.
- Bake 8-10 min. for chewy or
11-13 min. for crisp cookies.
- Cookies will still appear moist
- do not over bake.
- Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet.
- Place sheets of foil on
countertop.
- Remove cookies to foil to cool
completely.
Makes 3
dozen cookies.
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Did You Know?
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Crisco is a brand of
shortening that is popular in the United States. It was first produced
in 1911 by Procter & Gamble and was the first shortening to be made
entirely of vegetable oil.
When Procter and Gamble started the company they hired chemist Edwin C.
Kayser and developed the process to
hydrogenate cottonseed oil, which ensures the shortening remains solid
at normal storage temperatures. The initial purpose was to create a
cheaper substance to make candles than the expensive animal fats in use
at the time. Electricity began to diminish the candle market, and since
the product looked like lard, they began selling it as a food. This
product became known as Crisco, with the name deriving from the initial
sounds of the expression "crystallized cottonseed oil".
As of January 24, 2007, all Crisco shortening products have been
reformulated to contain less than one gram of trans fat per serving.
The separately marketed trans-fat free version introduced in 2004 was
discontinued. Crisco now consists of a blend of soybean oil, fully
hydrogenated cottonseed oil, and partially hydrogenated soybean and
cottonseed oils.
Some nutritionists are already warning that Crisco's formula change may
be nutritionally irrelevant. They argue that fully hydrogenated oil may
not be any healthier than trans-fat containing partially hydrogenated
oil. Crisco and similar low trans-fat products are formed by the
interesterification of a mixture of fully hydrogenated oils and
partially hydrogenated oils. The result is "artificial" insofar as the
composition of the resultant triglycerides is random, and may contain
combinations of fatty acids not commonly found in nature. A recent
study showed that interesterified fat increased volunteers' blood sugar
by 20 percent while simultaneously lowering the body's "good" HDL
cholesterol. The rise in blood sugar is problematic since it increases
the chance of developing type 2 diabetes, already a growing problem in
the US.
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